Databases

Apps usually need a database: create one in a click instead of running your own.

Create a database

1. Open Apps and click New Database.
2. Pick a name and an engine: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Redis or MongoDB.
3. It starts automatically; the row shows its status.

Connect your app to it

Press Reveal & copy on the database row to get its connection URL (it’s also copied to your clipboard). Put it in your app’s environment variables: conventionally as DATABASE_URL: and redeploy.

Note

This URL is an internal address. Its host is the database’s own name on the platform network, so it works from your apps here and from nowhere else. Pasting it into a SQL client on your laptop will fail to resolve the host: that is expected, and the next section is the fix.

Connect from your own computer

To reach the database from outside the platform (pgAdmin, DBeaver, TablePlus, psql, a migration script on your laptop), turn on external access:

1. On the database row, click Turn on next to “Only apps in this space can reach it”.
2. A second address appears under From anywhere. It has the same username, password and database name, at your server’s public address on a dedicated port.
3. Use that one in your desktop client. Click it to copy.

Both addresses stay valid at the same time, so your apps keep using the internal one.

Caution

External access means anyone on the internet who has the address can attempt to connect. The password is long and random, which is your protection, so never publish the URL or commit it to a repository. Turn it off again with Turn off when you no longer need it, and keep using the internal address from your apps.

If the external address refuses to connect, the port may still be closed on the server’s firewall. Contact us and we will open it.

Lifecycle

Databases can be stopped, started and restarted from their row. Deleting one destroys its data permanently: there is no undo, so dump anything you need first.